The Return of the TNMC
by VincentGrimm
Summary: Far beyond the beginning of our Earths time while right at the end and simultaneously inbetween; a ship went missing from the time-locked war. Nobody saw it, everyone knew it.  Jack Harkness is on his own facing the peak of the Last Great Timewar.
1. Chapter 1

Despite the hundreds of millions poured into the EDN (Earth Defence Network) since Torchwood was created, they were only able to keep an eye on one percent of outer space.

Wherever the long range scanners happened to be pointed that day designated which section of the vast expanse was being watched. Short range scanners on the other hand made sure that at least ninety-percent of the immediate orbit was under watch twenty four hours a day. With such odds it was much a surprise to Toshiko when one dark night from the blue one of their monitors flagged up unusual motion.

Moving from her alien translation Toshiko pulled up the screen that was flashing for her attention. 

_- Long range sensors detect foreign energy signature – _

The notice flashed red on the screen. Pulling up the details Toshiko was shocked to see just how far away the energy signature was. It was so far out at the edge of their galaxy the orbiting sensors couldn't even tell her how big, how fast, in which direction or if it was even a ship they were detecting.

Regardless, she swivelled in her seat and shouted up to Jack's office. "I think you should come look at this, long range sensors have picked up something entering our galaxy!" she shouted hoping that Jack hadn't stepped out of the office without her noticing. Moments later the charismatic, immortal time agent stuck his head over the railings. 

"Identity?" he asked 

"Nothing yet, it's too far to tell just yet," Toshiko explained as she looked at the miniscule amount of information she was receiving. 

"Moving?" 

"Yes, sensors are saying that it's moving at a high rate of speed in our direction," she said as more information was received 

"How fast is fast?" Jack queried as he made his way down the stairs "From the very edge that's at least three weeks travel in even the fastest of ships," 

"According to the calculations here…" Toshiko went quiet as she calculated the speed it was hurtling towards them "…four days until it's in our orbit," 

"Four days?" Jack exclaimed as he looked over her shoulder "that has to be wrong – nothing moves that fast unless it's teleporting at which point it would be here already," 

"It says four days, give or take a few hours," Toshiko explained but she and Jack both knew how to read the information provided; if the computer said four days, it was four days. 

"How big is it?" Jack asked as more information began to scroll up the screen. Toshiko tapped on the important section bringing it up in large font. 

"Massive… sensors can't say exactly while it's moving but at least thirty miles long," she gasped 

"See if you can contact them; anything moving that fast and that big will be picked up by normal satellites, easily and we don't want that," 

Hitting keys in a blur Toshiko sent out the generic hailing message that they had often used on approaching ships. In silence they sat and watched on screens as the ship continued to power through the solar system heading for Earth. 

"What are the chances it is just passing through?" Jack wondered aloud 

"Nil, its course is matching to our own. There are plenty of ways through the system that don't shadow our own passage. This ship is heading here," Toshiko explained 

"I knew that. Why don't they ever just go around?" he sighed grabbing the office phone out of its cradle and dialling in some well known numbers. After a few moments ringing the phone clicked at the other end. 

"Prime Minister – it's Jack Harkness here. I have some bad news…" he sighed. It was going to be one of those days.


	2. Chapter 2

Sat in Torchwood's presentation office, Jack pulled up the pictures they had of the approaching ship now only two days away from their planet. The pictures showed a multi-tiered ship shaped like a diamond crafted from a strange black substance that wouldn't allow their scanners to penetrate.

Thousands of windows glittered on its outer shell but there were no lights within, even the vast windows of the pilot's deck were darkened, sensors said that the ship was running flat out, the four mammoth engines at the back spitting vast green energy circles as it ploughed onward. 

"We have received no reply from the ship; it looks like its on auto-pilot programmed for Earth.

Unfortunately because we can't raise it on the comms we don't know if it's going to stop in our orbit or actually try and land so it's a bit of a panic in the world. If something that big decides it wants to land, we would be hard pressed to hide it from those out there so we need ideas, the Prime Minister, UNIT and the President all want ideas that we can put into effect." Jack took his seat at the end of the table and waited for a reply – there wasn't one. He wasn't too sure how they were meant to stop a behemoth ship that covered the light-years in a matter of days could be slowed and stopped. For one he had never heard of ships that could move that fast so they were something new and from experience Jack knew that things anew came things with guns, claws and deadly intentions. It just seemed to be the default setting on bad guys computers. 

"I'm assuming shooting it out of the sky isn't a possibility?"Owen wondered as he moved back and forth in his chair like a restless child. 

"A ship that big would certainly be shielded, we don't know who built it so don't really want to go in there all guns blazing," Jack pointed out "it's big but it seems unarmed but then again we can't even penetrate the hull so we're not too sure on that either," 

"Fly something up there and dock with it?" Ianto suggested 

"It's moving too fast, we don't have anything that could match its speed," Toshiko said shooting the idea down in flames. 

"Well we can't wait for it to get here and then hope it decides to be peaceful," Owen said "what if it decides it's not peaceful and it would rather have the Earth as a party venue for Intergalactic Space-Poker Seven?" 

Jack shrugged raising his hands "Exactly, we can't speak to them so we can't say what their intentions are. I'm hoping that stopping before they plough into our planet is on the cards but at the present moment it's a bit difficult," he sighed as he dialled a fourteen digit number into his mobile. As it had done for the last two days the phone went dead without even trying to connect. 

"_Where are you Doctor?_" Jack thought "_what was the point of giving me this number if you can't even answer it?_" 

"Jack? Are you ok Jack?" Gwen asked leaning forward to tap him on the shoulder. Looking around the table Jack found everyone looking at him. 

"What?" he asked smiling 

"Ianto just said why don't we try and boost the Torchwood satellite's power as the ship gets closer to Earth? We can create a network of satellites that would hit the ship from every angle – give us detailed information about what the hull is made of, if the shape leans towards flight or fight and maybe even get a look at what's inside using good old photographic lenses," Toshiko repeated what had been said while Jack had been in his daze. 

"How long would that take to set up?" he asked 

"A few hours, we need to predict where we can set this web up before the ship reaches it and then calibrate the satellites to do what's needed," Toshiko estimated 

"Then get to it," Jack smiled "let's see who our friends are."

From his office Jack looked down at his team working hard to try and solve this newest issue. It had been a long time since the Doctor had come back to Earth to see Jack and his team but when he did he had left Jack the number to contact the Tardis. As he pressed the numbers into his phone again Jack was unsurprised to find that the call simply disconnected itself. Having tried many different phones many times, Jack was beginning to wonder if the Doctor had given him a false number or written it down wrong. Fourteen digits was a bit long for a number even with an interstellar dialling code but then again the phone was able to connect anywhere in time and space so it was allowed to be a bit unusual.

Hearing the call fail to connect again, Jack threw the phone down on the table and returned to watching the information they knew about the approaching ship scroll up the screen in bright blue letters. 

It was weird – such a powerful ship tearing through the galaxy but not responding to or sending its own radio communications. According to what they knew the ship was impenetrable to signals and showed no signs of life. It was simply tearing through the universe on a course for Earth. 

The hours went by, Jack remained in his office reading up to date information, as the deadline to the launch of the satellite network went live. Fourteen satellites were arranged in a pattern determined to give them the greatest coverage of the ship as it passed through. 

"If it changes course then either there's a pilot on board or the ship is designed to try and avoid detection. This network will be the first big-satellite it approaches," Toshiko explained to the others as they watched a graphical representation of what was happening in space. 

"If it shoots them out of the sky then we know it's armed," Owen added "some people just don't like being watched." 

With baited breath they watched as the ship got closer and closer to their web. The minutes passed and at full pelt the ship approached and, just as predicted, the ship went straight through the centre throwing up gigabytes of new information on their screens. 

"The ships identity is the _TNMC_ – no other letters written on the hull. There are no signs of damage or hull breach only a slight scraping on one side that could be from a close encounter with an asteroid.

Apart from the engines there are no other energy signatures on board. The hull is smooth and while there are ports all over it for access there are no forward facing ones that could be for weaponry," Toshiko said taking the briefest of information from the list "no life signs either, that ship is stone cold and there seems to be no life support active," 

"So, a lifeless ship approaches, interesting," Jack said as he read through the detailed information.

Flicking through it was all rather dull; there was no power other than that from the engines, no life, no lights, no radio; absolutely nothing. The ship was just a mass of nothing heading their way but there was something familiar about it. 

"Toshiko – those engines, recognise them?" Jack asked 

"Not at all – they're not like anything we've got on Earth. They are basic propulsion engines but I have no idea how they work as the ship is showing no major reactor waste vents that would be needed with an engine to power something like that," she said 

"What about the energy signature they are giving off? Anything on file?" Jack queried 

"Plenty. Most of the energy shows up one place or another but never exactly like this," she said sending him up the information. 

He read that her words were true; _No matching energy signature_, the computer said clearly but all the signatures of powerful space travel were there. Casually Jack hit a few keys and searched for the closest match from the information they got when the ship went through their net. 

"_Closest energy match – Dalek propulsion 64% match_," the computer said aloud as the comparison was completed. The office froze as it said these words uttered. Dalek. The name they knew well and knew to fear; the last time they had encountered a long Dalek they were forced to initiate a time-lock on the base. A ship that vast could contain millions of Dalek's but Jack knew Dalek design; this was nothing like it but Dalek's could easily disguise themselves if they really needed to. 

"If it's Dalek why hasn't it fired yet? If it was Dalek ship it would have more than enough tech on board to shoot us from there!" Owen said. 

Since they had encountered the Dalek's Jack had made sure to train his team in the history of the time war and made sure they knew all about what enemies could span from it. 

"Only sixty-four percent matches – that's not really that close," Toshiko said "if it was Dalek they would have no doubt fired on us already. The ship hasn't changed course or showed us any signs that it is anything hostile," 

"With those kind of readings we don't really want it to get any closer, do we?" Owen exclaimed "Jack I know we don't have much of a chance but we need to start prepping weapons to try and slow that thing down before it gets too close." 

Jack turned and went back into his office, grabbing the phone off his desk and dialling the same fourteen digit number that he had already called so many times in the last two days. Again it clicked off, cutting Jack off from the one person in the universe who could no doubt shed some light on what was happening here. 

"Ready the weapons, but we don't fire until it gives us a reason. We can shoot out the engines before it reaches our atmosphere and, if needs be, use a particle weapon to knock it into our orbit but ideally we really need to…" Jack started but was cut off when all the monitors flashed white before showing nothing but static on every screen. 

"Toshiko?" Jack asked as he double timed to get down the metal stairs 

"Nothing – all signals are being jammed; we're getting nothing at all on anything. We're blind to what's happening," she said running system-wide diagnostics. 

"Jammed from where?" Jack asked 

"Space," she confirmed "nothing outside our orbit is replying to us," 

"_This is the Touring Vessel Solace- this ship is under quarantine do not attempt to approach "_ a voice called through the speaker system. 

"Solace – this is Torchwood from Earth; on what grounds are you jamming our systems?" Jack asked, pressing the broadcast button on the desk microphone. 

"_This is the Touring Vessel Solace- this ship is under quarantine do not attempt to approach,"_ it replied again. 

"A safety loop," Jack sighed "that ship has been quarantined by a higher authority. It didn't reply because they can't. It's designed so that nobody can find a way onto it unless they have superior technology but even then if a ship that big has been quarantined rather than destroyed and it moving without an escort…" Jack trailed off. Quarantined vessels _always_ had an escort or had their engines decommissioned; otherwise they were simply destroyed for the safety of others. There were of course many reasons as to why a quarantined ship would be moving under its own steam without a guard but none of them were hope-inspiring. 

"Jack?" Toshiko asked tapping him on the shoulder "What do we do?" 

"We find the Doctor," Jack said "we can't scan space but we can still scan the Earth. Every camera we have access too, tell every country that we have to find the Doctor. Toshiko, you get to work to try and get our sensors back online. I want that ship in view by the end of the night. It's only two days away; we can't just sit here blind when it's so close."


	3. Chapter 3

When the sensors finally came back on-line the next morning things hadn't changed. The ship was still on its unwavering course for Earth. It hadn't slowed, the ship was still sending no power to any other device on board (from what their sensors could tell them) and it showed no signs of slowing. The only change was that signal – the broadcast that stated the ship was under quarantine. They had narrowed the source of this broadcast to a small black box attached to the hull on the underside but their sensors couldn't identify who put this box there or from what planet the technology came from all they knew was that it was broadcasting on all frequencies and that they were having to jam it to stop the rest of the Earth picking it up on any device capable of picking up a signal. 

"We now know whoever quarantined the ship has access to pretty decent technology – that quarantine warning is broadcasting on every single wavelength we have here on Earth but also all the navigation systems we've commandeered from alien ships over the years are receiving it, we haven't got a single bit of radio kit from any planet that _isn't_ getting the warning," Toshiko said sliding Jack a printed out list of everything that was receiving "even our fax machine printed a warning in English," 

"So it's om-comming," Jack clarified "it's pretty common on some craft depending where in time you pick them up." 

"Oh, well in any case it's broadcasting to the entire planet saying to stay away and no matter what we do we can't get any other response out of it," Toshiko said 

"It's a basic warning system but there's definitely no sign of the people who might have set it?" Jack asked 

"Nothing at all," she shook her head "just the same message over and over." 

"It's nice to see they've at least done it in Welsh," Iatno commented as the message cycled in the background. 

"What?" Toshiko asked "that's Chinese," she said pointing to the radio. A confused look passed through all of them. 

"No, it's definitely Welsh," Gwen said backing up Ianto "every other cycle is in Welsh," 

"It's doing your native languages," Jack said pausing "is it a perfect translation?" 

"Yeah," all three of them said in unison. 

Punching the numbers into his phone again a bit harder than was required, Jack felt his heart thumping hard in his chest. The phone cut off again, just like before. None of their sources had reported the message had been translated, none of them had report seeing the Doctor either. 

"Jack, what's wrong?" Gwen asked – something that was being asked too often. 

"The Tardis can translate any alien language into English. That is the only time I've ever heard of anything doing it. If that ship has the technology that allows it to psychically adjust the message it's broadcasting depending on who is listening to it then we are in trouble. That kind of technology is few and far between even in the circles I was in," he explained turning the phone over in his hands 

"So it's a Timelord ship?" Owen said 

"No, it looks nothing like a Timelord ship. They wouldn't build anything that big, I told you about the Tardis' dimensions. Whatever it is could be from the same system though – that technology is high-end kit that we just haven't got," he dialled again, yet again it got cut off. 

"No answer still?" Gwen said 

"Nothing," Jack said 

"Try texting him?" she offered making Jack smile 

"At this point we may as well try," he said sending a brief message; "_Doctor, it's Jack, I need you here we are in deep trouble,_" followed by a second message "_February 15__th__, 2011, by the way, or as close as you can get."  
><em>

Powerless, Torchwood sat and watched as on the monitors the ship continued its approach to Earth. Across the Earth satellites were beginning to pick up the approaching ship, questions were being asked while governments did their best to shut all the information down but Jack knew that in a day's time it wouldn't matter; if that ship chose to break the atmosphere then the world would see it without any need of fancy equipment.


	4. Chapter 4

Monitors in Torchwood went berserk fifteen hours before the ship was destined to reach Earth. Waking to a the sirens and flashing lights of the base, Toshiko threw herself out of the camp bed that had been erected for them to sleep on site. Jack was first to the monitors but Toshiko was only moments behind him. As the rest of the team piled in Toshiko began to read the data aloud. "The ship has stopped!" she exclaimed "just beyond Mars," 

"Why the warnings?" Owen asked pointing at the flashing red light on the wall "that's a bit extreme for _"the ship has stopped_" even for us," 

"It didn't _stop_ of its own accord," Toshiko said scrolling backwards through the information "there was a powerful explosion from the engine room on the ship. It's stranded on the far side of Mars with no energy signatures at all," 

"Malfunction?" Jack asked 

"I can't say; we haven't got a satellite in the area. All we know is that the sensors pointed at the ship dictated a huge explosion from the rear engines and the ship stopped moving – that is all," she reported. 

More information began to scroll up the screen "the ship has sustained hull damage in the explosion but the shields have stopped it taking too much damage or decompressing," she added. 

"Did the engines explode or were they hit by something?"Jack asked 

"Still no specifics, the sensors only saw this hole because apparently it's almost two miles in diameter near the engines," Toshiko said 

"Well that's at least brought us some time," Owen pointed out running his fingers through his hair 

"Explosion reported in the Bay," Gwen shouted as she came running into the room holding her mobile phone "something's crashed… police are saying it's an asteroid but want us to attend," 

"How do you know this?" Jack asked as the phone on the desk suddenly started ringing shrilly. Picking it up he listened as the Superintendant of their local station recited just what Gwen had said. 

"Officers on the scene phoned me directly," she said holding up the mobile. 

"Right, this is too coincidentally. Get to the truck, Toshiko send all the information to the car, try and see if anything entered our atmosphere and track back what crashed see if it's a plane or an alien craft,"

Jack ordered as he grabbed his coat from his office and chased the rest of the group out into the garage before they hurtled out into the night, blue strobes flashing.


	5. Chapter 5

Pulling up at the dockside it was immediately apparent that the "Asteroid" was certainly not an asteroid. For one, Jack noted, asteroids weren't metal plated and full of crystals. As they stepped into the cordoned area it was apparent that whatever had crashed had fallen from the heavens, punched clean through a building tearing large chunks out of it before exploding into flames and crashing into the bay. Jack walked slowly over the scattered crystals, bit of fragmented metal all the way to the edge of the bay where there lay nothing but the inky blackness of the water.

"Whatever it is, it's gone down," Jack stated

"Not before exploding into a thousand pieces. Look at all the wreckage, that's certainly over half a small craft," Ianto pointed out as he gestured to bits of ship scattered across the ground.

"Bag up what we can carry and send it for testing, get a truck in for the bigger sections and arrange for divers and a crane to get the rest. I take it there were no bodies?" he asked, Gwen shook her head

"They are reporting no casualties and have found no evidence that anyone was here or injured. I guess whatever was in it, if anything, went over the edge with the rest," she said looking down at the water.

"_Jack – no doubt there's a crowd hanging around at the crash site. Just wondering; CCTV picked up a man near the scene just after it happened wearing what looked like a one-piece boiler suit or uniform in silver. I'm guessing he's not there?_" Toshiko's voice said over the headset. Turning to look at the crowd that had gathered despite the early hour the team did a quick scan but saw nobody of the description.

"Negative," Owen replied

"Why Tosh? Something odd other than the jumpsuit? There are plenty of bars around here that would allow that kind of thing. It is Wales after all," Jack said

"_Well the person was wearing a matching helmet and didn't stop to check out the scene of what would have undoubtedly been a big explosion. It was just a bit too coincidental_," she explained

"Did it show up on any other cameras?" Jack asked

"_None at all, once it goes off the camera around the corner from you then it's gone. It's a high street too, full of cameras but no signs,_" she explained

"I'll go check it out, left or right at the street?" he asked stepping under the cordon and heading for the main road

"_Left, at the junction we lose all sight,_" Toshiko guided from her place in the office.

Following her words Jack was led directly to the sight where the mysterious and rather oddly dressed individual disappeared. At the junction there was nothing, just as Toshiko had said it was a busy main road leading directly into the heart of a bustling city – nowhere to hide. Scanning the area he found nothing of interest until he looked up at the stars. 

"Tosh, can you see me while I stand here?" he asked stepping close to the building

"_No, you are distorted by a slight glare coming off that parked car, why? What's there?_" she asked hearing a loud metal clatter down the headset.

"A fire escape ladder to the roof!" he explained dragging the ladder down and quickly scaling it to the rooftop. High on the roof Jack could look down at the accident site but other than the gaping hole in the building where whatever had crashed had ploughed through the stone and metal structure there was nothing out of the ordinary. High chimneys, boxes and the fire escape door (which Jack checked was still tightly locked) all littered the rooftop there were plenty of places to hide but as Jack checked them all one by one he was beginning to consider maybe the being had gone to another roof – something he quickly changed his mind about when he gauged the distance from the roof he was on to the next being almost twenty meters apart. This left him with options such as teleportation but that negated the need for a ship, albeit a crashed ship.

"Anything down there?" he called to his team who were busy collecting the crystals for analysis as well as a few other bits of technology from the crash.

"Nothing substantial – these crystals are interesting though. They change colour sometimes when I touched them," Gwen explained shaking the bag of crystals

"Interesting but probably not substantial, but bag them up anyway. Don't want to leave anything for the locals to fiddle with," he ordered as he headed back for the ladder.

Returning to street level Jack gave the area a quick sweep on foot, hoping to find anything that would point them in any direction. As he walked he grabbed his phone dialling the same fourteen digit number again. Just like before it clicked off without even ringing. With a heavy heart Jack abandoned his search and headed back to his team – maybe the lab tests on this equipment would show them something more. Something a little better that would give them some direction in the ever-deepening mystery of their visitors.


	6. Chapter 6

The next day Toshiko reported no change from the ship just outside of Mars but the technology they had at their fingertips was all the more interesting.

Jack watched as they slowly introduced what crystals they had to varying voltage, each change caused the crystals to light up vividly in different colours – interesting but it wasn't exactly blowing their case wide open. After a few minutes of playing with them Jack did a quick round on the lab only to find that everything else from the crash site had been generically… generic. Nothing they found was out of the ordinary for a patrol shuttle from any kind of ship. There were no markings to identify it, the alloy for the hull could be any number of alien races, there was no blood, no signs of a body and all they got the harbour was more pieces of ship, the engineers report said that whatever had crashed had disintegrated on impact and that they were lucky to get what they had. Even after a thorough search of the bay and connecting water systems the reports told the same story – nothing found, no evidence of crashed ship; case closed.

Returning to Toshiko's post, Jack looked at the CCTV tape they had from the crash site. One moment everything was normal, the only variant was a vigorous camera shake and a bright flash then, minutes later just as Toshiko had explained a mysterious figure appeared on screen, looked about a bit before walking into the patch of glare just as Jack had. "There was nothing on the rooftop – it was a perfectly normal rooftop. The door was locked with no signs of tampering so whatever it was didn't go inside, everything else was just the same, aside from the caved in roof," he sighed "any news from our outer space junk?"

"Nothing, hasn't moved, still playing the same thing over and over – quarantine, so on," she too sighed sitting back in her chair, "there is a satellite en route but until it arrives," she shrugged "there's nothing to do except keep tabs to make sure it's not moving. I would say it was certainly not storing any kind of life as if there were they would have attempted some kind of repairs by now and an attempt to restart the engines. There has been no such attempt."

"Keep an eye – something has to happen, give me a shout when the satellite gets into range," he said boarding the elevator to the street.

Emerging in the bright Cardiff sunlight, Jack stretched before casually stepping off into public view. Just like always nobody looked around as he magically appeared. Some days Jack wished someone would just so he could charm his way out of it. When nobody approached him Jack made his way into town on foot, sticking to the usual routes that would take him through all the densely populated areas. On his walk Jack decided to call in on the crash site from last night just before getting back to the office. The area was still closed with police tape but plenty of people were stood around looking at the damage caused.

"Oh it's so bad isn't it? I mean it was such a lovely restaurant!" an old woman with her twenty-something grandson commented

"They'll have it back up in no time, satellites fall out of the sky all the time," her son commented

"They said it was a meteor crash," Jack interjected as he stood opposite the seventy year old woman in her beige cardigan with curly grey hair and red beret. The son, a tall, broad man with porcelain features and shoulder length dyed white hair and dressed in a long grey great-coat similar to Jack's own smirked

"They always say it's a meteor crash. They say you shouldn't believe everything the news says," he said, his jade green eyes unwavering from Jacks own

"What makes you say otherwise?" he wondered

"Meteors rarely leave metal scratches," he indicated with long pale hands the arc whatever had crashed had taken when it hit the solid earth of the bay before careering over the barrier and into the water "the way that barrier is damaged and that stone is scratched by a metal – whatever crashed bounced up and through the barrier. Not usual meteor damage," Jack nodded, impressed at this

"That's a pretty good eye for a civilian," he chuckled

"Not at all, being a military man I'm surprised you didn't clock it sooner," the grandson said nodding at Jack's military coat

"It's ironic that because when I was at war all I did was watch the lads. Being an officer and all," he chuckled with a sparkle in his eye as he remembered the old days.

"If that's the way you air-force guys did it," the young man smiled before turning to his grandmother "we should be off, I don't think we should spend all day gawping at crashes,"

"Good day," Jack said as the son nodded, walking away with his grandmother who didn't return the courtesy. Jack watched as they walked – it was always good to give people a once over he thought. The old woman walked awkwardly, her short heeled red shoes moving soundlessly over the stone floor.

"_Soundless?_" Jack wondered "_Quite light footing for someone who moves so awkwardly…" _stepping forward he jogged to catch up with the two.  
>"Excuse me, can I just ask something?" Jack said catching them up.<p>

Slowly the grandson turned, his elbow brushing his grandmother's shoulder and Jack watched as a rainbow shower flared from the place they collided. Before Jack could even say anything the grandson pulled a long barrelled pistol from his coat pocket and put two brief bursts into Jack's chest but no muzzle-flare or flashes accompanied the soundless shots but regardless Jack suddenly blacked out, stumbling as he walked before hitting the pavement with scarlet flooding from his torso. Looking up before passing out Jack saw the street was empty except for strangers rushing to his rescue.


	7. Chapter 7

Jack awoke flat on his back in the Torchwood medical area with his shirt undone. It wasn't an especially unusual state of affairs but unlike other times now Jack was the only one with his shirt undone while Owen was at one of the terminals putting in data. He groaned as he sat up, propping himself up on his elbows and looking down at himself.

"Ah, you're awake, it's good to see. You were out a bit longer than usual," Owen said

"What happened?" Jack asked

"Well we were hoping to know that too. Whatever shot you was nice enough to come and go without leaving any traces except for two massive burn marks that went straight through you. Try explaining that to the paramedics that picked you up. How does a man sustain two massive laser wounds through his chest in the middle of Cardiff on a Wednesday? We gave them the usual "it's a matter of national security, don't tell anyone or we'll get you" job and they went away but that leaves _us _with the issue of; how did you sustain two massive laser wounds through your chest in the middle of Cardiff on a Wednesday?" Owen said in his usual manner

"Check the CCTV, it's all there but more interestingly; is the grandmother?" Jack said swinging his legs off the table and beginning to button up his shirt.

"Hmm…" Owen hummed as he shouted up to Gwen "he's awake! You can bring down the laptop because he's making no sense to me,"

Gwen descended the stairs carrying a laptop in her hands "Glad you're awake, what do you remember?"

"I remember getting shot, I remember his grandmothers silent shoes and his shiny laser pistol but outside of that nothing. What have you got?" Jack asked

"None of the above!" Gwen declared showing Jack the HD-CCTV video of his shooting. In the video they watched as Jack crossed to the place of the accident, stood alone at the barrier before jogging half way across the screen and collapsing.

No old lady. No well-armed-for-a-human grandson.

"What about other cameras?" Jack questioned

"Nothing either," Gwen explained "all camera's show nothing except you collapsing in the street and bleeding everywhere,"

"Which is weird considering laser burns usually seal immediately – what weapon did that to you Jack?" Owen asked gesturing at the place where the burns had been earlier prior to his rapid healing.

"No idea, it was silver," Jack grunted

"What did he look like?" Toshiko asked from the top of the stairs

"Apparently nothing to your CCTV," he said ascending the stairs with the team in tow "but at ground level he was about six-four, built in an athletic sense, pretty, pale, very white hair and dressed in a black great-coat with no distinguishing features,"

"Trust you to have a pretty hit-man. Did he catch you off guard with his looks?" Owen smiled

"Actually he caught me off guard with his hologram grandmother and his very-_very_ fast gun hand – definitely trained to a professional level. That hologram idea was just genius. If he was by himself I would have thought it weird but because he was seemingly showing his grandmother around… it was a good disguise; perfect in fact except for the bit where her shoes made no sound," Jack detailed.

"Do you think it's the man from the crash video?" Toshiko asked

"I'd say the right proportions but why isn't he showing up now when he did earlier. Did you put the video through the filters?" Jack wondered

"I did, all of them, both tapes. Neither of them show anyone at all near you," Toshiko said regrettably "whoever he was he knows how to hide,"

"Like I said – a pro," Jack stretched the weariness away with a groan "well I guess I have to get back out there – if we can't see him on film then we have to do this the old fashioned way. Get the description out to the police but give them the usual do not approach order."

"Are you sure that's wise? He did shoot you in broad daylight in front of many a witness who, I quote here; w_atched you collapse_. Nobody saw your mystery man and certainly didn't see him shoot you, are you sure you want to try and corner him again?" Gwen lectured as she followed him up to his office.

"This time I'll be ready, this time I know he's out to shoot me," Jack smiled "I won't fall for those looks a second time. It's just not my style to go back for seconds."

"He's going to shoot you again, I just know it," Gwen sighed leaving the room

"Just remember – _do not approach!_" he shouted as she descended the stairs "I don't want to have to explain to the chief of police how gangs are stepping it up to laser weaponry."

Heading back onto the elevator Jack returned to the surface and the streets of Cardiff. The sun was beginning to set giving the sky a deep orange glow as Jack searched the streets. Through crowds of people he walked, keeping to the shadows of the buildings when possible, Jack used his keen senses to search out his shooter. As the hours passed Jack began to move further and further afield but as the numbers of people began to thin Jack was getting nowhere. It was just too big an area for him to search in such a short amount of time. Walking back through the city Jack found his hand glued to his pistol. People flowed around him heading to bars and clubs in the city centre, the sounds and smells of the club drifted out to meet him. Somewhere in the distance a glass broke, Jack felt his heart kick up a notch but settled when he saw two men wrestling in the road, a broken bottle lying next to them. Just another city night out, Jack thought as a police car screamed around the corner and police jumped out grabbing the quarrelling pair.  
>A pair of hands suddenly grabbed Jack by the scruff of his coat's neck and dragged him backwards into the alleyway, before he could draw his weapon one of the hands released the neck of his coat and grabbed his gun arm instead, pinning it behind his back. Turning quickly Jack threw a punch at his attacked but had it blocked before he was grabbed by the throat and driven backwards into a fence barring the way. His attacker stepped back and gave Jack a quick once over "Still alive? Most interesting," the white haired male said.<p>

Jack smiled when he saw who it was "I've been looking for you," he said as his hand went for his pistol. His heard sank when he discovered his pistol gone from his pocket. The white haired male held it up to him

"I couldn't let you keep it," he explained as he threw the gun over Jack's head and over the fence "now, how are you still alive? Being shot would kill most people,"

"If you hadn't been so rude you could have at least asked me and I'd have told someone with your good looks at length my list of skills," Jack smiled "I have a question for you as it happens; how are you not on any camera in the city?"

"Let's call it an old technique," the white haired man said drawing his own laser pistol

"Do you really want to do that again?" Jack asked spreading his arms wide "you know what will…"


	8. Chapter 8

Moments later Jack's eyes flickered open and he found that he was lying against the fence, as his eyes opened all he could see were the shining black boots of his attacker who was stood with his pistol at his side.

"I told you…" Jack groaned as he got to his feet "it wouldn't do you any good," the white haired man smiled

"Very interesting," he said raising his pistol again

"Oh come on!" Jack groaned before being shot twice more. The next time he woke up Jack was alone, the city sounds were still drifting into the alleyway from the street beyond so nobody had seen what had occurred in the alleyway. Remaining sat on the floor; Jack reached into his pocket and removed his open phone. Calling the number he had dialled while being attacked, Jack waited for two rings until Owen's voice came over the phone.

"Are you ok?" Owen asked "Sounded like you weren't having much luck,"

"I'm ok, I will certainly need a new shirt," he said poking at the four burn holes in his shirt "did you get anything over the phone?"

"We did, we heard everything," Owen said smugly "I take it you didn't get the chance to follow him?"

"Not really, it's a bit difficult to chase people down after you've have a pair of laser rounds put into your chest," Jack explained getting to his feet and walking to the street "I'll see you in a few minutes," closing his phone Jack began to walk back to the Torchwood hub.

Crossing the square towards the elevator at the Torchwood hub something caught Jack's eye just out of shot. Turning his head slightly as he walked Jack was sure that there had been someone watching him, right in the middle of the square someone – who he now suspected – to be stood directly before him but just out of sight.

"You're here aren't you?" Jack called out to the empty expanse around him "you were there, just there, I know you were,"

Rather than take the elevator Jack turned and ran as fast as he could, sprinting across the open area taking the longest and most complicated route he could to return to the Torchwood entrance down near the waterfront. Sliding under barriers, jumping over small fences, down alleyways and darkened streets he ran. Running until his legs were shaky Jack slid under the final barrier in his way and dropped the twenty feet to the waters edge. Crashing onto the wooden walkway Jack skipped up to the front door in two steps and dodged inside, locking the door after him and turning out the lights.

He knew that there was no way he could have been followed, nobody without the use of a helicopter or other aerial vehicle could have chased him down. The route he took was perfect for losing people, it took just the right combination of movements to keep the momentum going to carry from one to the other – anyone who had followed him would have had to either match his movements perfectly every single time otherwise they would fall behind.

"Jack?" called a voice out of the darkness that caused the Captain to jump clean out of his skin. It was only Ianto who had emerged from the hidden entrance to the hub.

"Ianto, my god am I glad it's you stepping out of the dark," Jack said straightening up to meet his friend in the partial darkness broken only by the light streaming in from the city.

"I take it you were being followed? We watched you cross the square before running off in completely the opposite direction. Very subtle," Ianto commented as they headed for the hub.

"Yes, well, I was pretty sure," Jack explained as they headed through the secret door and down the connecting corridor.

As they entered the hub Jack did a quick headcount and was glad to see everyone was present and working. Toshiko was well into her crystals that were changing colour with each change in voltage and she had even manage to connect a few to begin trying out new theories.

"What do you think?" Jack asked as he approached

"I think they were a display of some kind, like a screen as I can change them all in sequence or in part or in groups depending how much voltage I use. It's very clever really," she demonstrated multiple colour changes by striking a few keys.

"Strange but interesting, I can't say I have seen many things like that since we have had holograph technology," he commented.

"Holograph technology was flawed, as you saw earlier," said a voice, a cold voice that Jack had only heard a few times and each time it involved him getting shot. Spinning on his heels Jack started when he saw the white haired man standing in the doorway of the hub, casually leaning against the frame as if this was his everyday thing.

"The alarms?" Ianto questioned hitting a few keys to see why they hadn't triggered

"I don't show up on your cameras; your security systems are less of a challenge," the male commented

"So you follow me down here, why?" Jack asked "you must have been pretty fit to chase me all that way,"

"I am the fittest person in the universe," the male chuckled with a wry smile "nobody can outrun me, outfight me or deceive me, it's why I was chosen,"

"Chosen, for what?" Jack asked

"For a mission far beyond your capabilities of understanding but don't take that the wrong way. I am here because I need you and your equipment. While you are generations behind me and my technology you are light years ahead of the rest of this planet. You have something here I need, something I need to finish the job I travelled millions of light years to accomplish. My duty as it happens," he explained "you have here, somewhere, a communications device that can link through time and space. I have tracked the readings back here,"

Jack laughed and drew his mobile phone "you mean this? It's not the most powerful piece of technology I have but it does take pictures in beautiful quality,"

"That is a simple communications device," the male commented "that can't possibly do what I intercepted,"

"I'm afraid it can – I was trying to contact a very import…"

His sentence was interrupted by two laser blasts to the chest that sent him hurtling backwards into the workstation. "Throw me the phone, I don't believe the rest of you are as indestructible," he ordered coldly pointing his pistol at the others. Gwen dropped to her knees and crawled quickly to where the phone had fallen before throwing it to the white haired man who caught it easily.

Flipping it open with one hand the man quickly scrolled through until he found the number he was after – the number that connected Jack to the most powerful ship in existence. Crossing to one of the work stations, the Torchwood group watched as the white haired man set to work going doing god only knows to their system.

"Gwen, there's a small machine pistol just under that terminal to your right, get it," Owen whispered quietly while pointing subtly at the computer. With one fluid movement the white haired male raised his gun and fired without looking the laser cut through the air, the computer system before finally hitting one of the large work stations causing it to explode in a shower of plastic, steel and polymer.

"I do not recommend trying to be a hero," the white haired man said putting his pistol down "you cannot compete with me, just sit back for now and think that in a few minutes all this will be over and I will be gone leaving you to continue your work protecting the planet,"

"How do you know what we do?" Jack groaned as he woke up from death yet again

"It is blindingly obvious what you do. This is a level three planet, in the future you may succeed to the second level of hierarchy but right now you are most certainly a third but some of the technology I see here is well beyond you, so I can only assume you protect this planet and cannibalise what others leave behind," he explained typing at lightning speed

"Good assumption," Jack said as he got to his feet, picking up the hidden machine pistol from under the counter as he went.

"Perfect assumption actually," the male corrected as he finished typing "and drop the weapon," he looked over at Jack who had the machine pistol in his hand but not pointed at the man.

"Why would I do that? You are unarmed," Jack pointed out

"My weapon is on the table, don't think that because it's not in my hand I'm not able to pick it up and shoot you before you manage to get a shot off. After all that's a mechanical pistol is it not? Prone to jamming," he analysed

"It is kept in good condition, the chances of it jamming are…" Jack started to say but in that instant the white haired male grabbed his pistol and turned pointing it at Jack. The entire movement was fluid and perfect, taking less that two seconds all in all.

"Like I said, never assume too much about me," the white haired male said

"So… a stand off, this will only end in our favour, we have many more guns," Jack explained

"I don't care about that, I just needed one thing from you," the male explained

"and what might that be?" Jack asked

"The truth…" the male said striking the return key.

Then came a sound from Jack's past that strummed on the very strings of his heart, a sound that originated from deep within time and space, a sound he had been waiting months to hear.

The unmistakable sound of the tardis materialising. Very soon the ghosting image began to appear as the sound got louder and louder.

"Interesting," the white haired male said quickly writing in a new code and striking the return key again.

Then came the sound of splintering wood and shrieking steel and in a vivid white flash the Tardis' ghost image had vanished.

"You have powerful friends, immortal man," the white haired male said as he began to back up towards the door "not many can claim they have a direct line to a Tardis of Gallifrey,"

Before Jack could shoot the male was gone, vanishing up the stairs and back into the night.

Minutes later the roaring sound of the approaching Tardis filled the cavernous room again, the roaring approach accompanied by the powerful winds that swept through the Torchwood hub until suddenly silence broken only by the sound of a creaking door.

An unfamiliar face to Jack stuck his head around the doorway

"Jack, what just happened?" he asked in a very familiar tone.


	9. Chapter 9

"So you are telling me a man with a laser gun who cannot be seen by cameras, who has a holographic grandmother with apparent super speed and cunning just walked in here and used Windows XP and your satellite system to hack into my Tardis and drag it 14,200 years into the past before then sending a relay signal which sent me shooting twenty centuries forward in time?" the Doctor asked

"Exactly," Jack replied looking at Amy and Rory who looked sceptical before back to the Doctor who was silent.

"Well you should have called me sooner!" the Doctor jumped to his feet and turned to the offending station that had called him forth "I have spent the last two weeks trying to get sand out of the Tardis' chameleon circuit. It's spent most of the last month in the image of a tree which considering we were on a planet of underwater forests made it especially difficult to relocate,"

"I was going to say, I contacted you several times, including a text message," Jack told him

"Text message? Jack you know the Tardis doesn't accept texts," the Doctor laughed "it's a Tardis not a mobile phone. You expect too much of the old girl!"

"Speaking of old girl, have you remodelled her? She sounds sweet and looks just fantastic!" he said walking around the outside and listening to the engines hum.

"We had a bit of a change the both of us," he said straightening his suit jacket and bowtie

"Bowties are cool," Jack commented with a smile. The Doctor smiled smugly at Amy

"See… bowties _are_ cool," he said before turning back to the computer "right then whoever was here certainly knows how to track a signal, quite a genius move it was too to actually draw the Tardis in rather than simply phone it… not an easy thing to do especially to _my _Tardis, the most wonderful Tardis in time and space and every was,"

"Doctor do you have any idea who could have done it?" Jack asked

"Of course, it could have been many people, many different races across the universe," the Doctor explained "I think what I need to do is meet this man. Jack, can you arrange that?"

"I wouldn't advise it Doctor, he recognised your Tardis as being what it was before he knocked you back and fled the scene, plus he has a habit of shooting me," he trailed off

"Four times now he's shot him, or is it five?" Owen wondered aloud counting on his fingers "and he's only known him a day or so,"

"So a man with an ichy trigger finger comes to town to trouble you. Did he say what he wanted?" the Doctor asked

"He said he wanted a way to make contact to something deep in time and space, that was what drew him here in the first place," Toshiko explained "he narrowed it down to the mobile phone which he used to draw you in,"

"So who would want to contact something in space. Maybe a ship perhaps?" the Doctor wondered

"That's why we wanted to contact you Doctor – there was a ship approaching Earth at a high rate of speed, way faster than anything we have ever seen it looked like it wasn't going to stop then suddenly it halted. Engine explosion. The same day this man arrives in town with his laser guns and fancy equipment. It's too much of a coincidence," Jack told him "I want you to have a look at this ship Doctor,"

Jack ran up to his office where he grabbed the images of the ship in Mars' orbit before running back down the stairs and thrusting them into the Doctors hands. The room was silent as the Doctor flicked through the pictures, his face becoming longer and more sullen with each image.

"That ship Doctor, you know it?" Jack pressed

"I know it, we all know it, all Timelords know it because it was there. No, it can't be here, the timewar is timelocked. Nothing can get out!" the Doctor frenzied throwing the pictures down on the desk.

"You got out," said a cold voice from the shadows in the corner of the room "I got out, in fact quite a lot got out right near the end,"

The Doctor whirled around to look into the eyes of the man who emerged from the darkness, laser pistol in hand.

"Timelord," the man smiled "it has been quite sometime," he pointed the laser gun at the Doctor "throw me your sonic weapon," he ordered. Gingerly the Doctor reached into his pocket and retrieved his screwdriver.

"It's a screwdriver actually," he pointed out as he threw it to the man who caught it and gave it a quick once over.

"It is enough," he said "now back away from the Tardis," he gestured for Amy and the others to move too. They did as they were told, hands in the air.

"You know you can't fly that thing without me," the Doctor pointed out "and I have no reason to help you," the white haired male shot Jack in the chest sending him crashing into the desk again

"Really?" the white haired man smiled gesturing for the Doctor to get into the Tardis "it's ok, we're not going anywhere I just need your subspace relay,"

"What would you possibly need that…" but before he could finish the white haired male grabbed him by the bowtie and dragged him into the Tardis, slamming the doors behind him.

"Very rude!" the Doctor commented as he was pushed towards the Tardis' main control panel

"You'll get over it," the man explained as he hit a few switches on the Tardis' dashboard before moving to the scanner and tapping in a few bits of information.

"I'm sure. What exactly are you doing?" the Doctor asked walking around to where the man was working to look at the scanner "you're probing a specific point in space. Why? Why are you doing that? There's nothing there!"

"There's nothing there _now_ but the Tardis can probe the same point for a millennia. There _will_ be something there," he explained before turning to the Doctor "also can you move away? I don't quite trust you,"

"What am I going to do, really?" the Doctor asked "you have my screwdriver and a laser gun,"

"I don't know, I never trusted Timelords," he said turning back to the screen and typing quickly before striking the return key and causing the Tardis to make a pinging sound similar to that of a sonar

"So you have met Timelords before?" the Doctor wondered

"I have probably met you before – who knows?" the man said as he watched the screen expectantly.

"So you don't remember?" the Doctor asked

"I remember plenty," he said before being cut off by a particular important ringing out "aha!" he smiled as a ship appeared on the scanner.

Casually he threw the screwdriver back to the Doctor before walking to the doors of the Tardis

"I would say see you around, but I expect I won't be able to get rid of you," the male said before disappearing in a golden shimmer of light.

The group started as the Doctor threw open the doors to his Tardis and hurtled out of them.

"Come on!" he shouted running up the stairs into the Torchwood presentation room followed by everyone including Owen who was struggling to carry a recently re-conscious Jack.

Tapping quickly the Doctor opened the direct feeds from the satellites in space that were monitoring the ship near mars. For a few minutes there was nothing except for the cold, dead ship floating in the vast expanse but then something happened, a star appeared in the heavens burning white and gold, burning so bright it threatened to darken the very sun. From the glittering star emerged a long silver spike followed soon by a great spherical ship that looked very much like a sharpened zephyr. The great ship dwarfed even the ship labelled TNMC. As it emerged completely the ship turned slowly, banking to face the other ship before in a hail of gunfire obliterating it entirely. The group watched the action unfold in horror, it was so calculated, so perfect and so unbelievably easy. As it banked again and headed back for outer space they got one brief glimpse of the golden letters stamped down the hull of the ship before it disappeared in a flash of golden light;

_**The Sword of Gallifrey**_


	10. Chapter 10

The group sat looking at the Doctor who was at the far end of the table his head in his hands. It was all too much, everything should have been destroyed in the Moment at the end of the Timewar but here there were remnants.

"Doctor? What's happening?" Amy asked touching his arm softly "what was that ship?"

"the Last Great Timewar," he said "it was terrible. The Dalek's against the Timelords, we fought over for hundreds of millennia burning planets and ships. There were so many deaths, hundreds of millions.

One day there was a Timelord born, years before the Timewar started. When the Master was put in front of the temporal rift they say he went mad, when they put the Vanguard in front of it they say he saw all of space and time but more importantly he saw what was coming – he saw the darkness and saw what he had to do. He predicted the first wave of the attack by the Dalek's and we were able to fight them off but then it all began. We built ships to fight the war; we travelled the stars fighting the Dalek's on all fronts but then one day their numbers were too much. Gallifrey made a choice like no other we chose to build a Tardis like no other. The Sword of Gallifrey was the first Tardis/Battleship hybrid and with the Vanguard as the Captain it changed the tide of war. For the first time there was a Tardis with guns, all across the universe the Sword was in battle with a thousand different Dalek ships all at once, it used time travel to go back in time and attack the Dalek fleet the moment before they attacked it.

It was unstoppable.

He is the reason the Cult of Skaro was invented. They worked out that there was no way any of their ships could stand up to him and so they needed a whole new way of killing but even then that wasn't enough because nothing could stop the Sword as it levelled everything.

Near the end it all got worse. Through our battles we ripped a very hole in the universe from which an evil like no other came. Some say it was built by the Timelords in a future much darker than our own, some say it was a Dalek-Timelord hybrid. Whatever it was it came with darkness and it was unstoppable. It was the Nightmare Child. A ship like no other that killed without caring, slowly it moved through the universe destroying planets and ships of both sides.

Then one day it arrived at Gallifrey, a towering black mass descending from the sky threatening to destroy our planet when from the smoke and cloud the Sword of Gallifrey appeared for the first time, it was amazing, beautiful how it rose through the cloud bank with all guns blazing lighting the night sky and the Nightmare Child turned and fled into the universe. The Nightmare Child appeared before the Sword of Gallifrey existed but it appeared because of what the Sword was going to do but it was no match for it.

The Vanguard sent a message out into the universe telling all Timelords to return to Gallifrey as soon as was possible then, three days later the Sword of Gallifrey went out into the universe to hunt down the Nightmare Child but it was different this time. This was the final leg of the Time War, this was the second time the Sword of Gallifrey had gone out into the universe but at the same time it was the first time too. As it powered through the universe he targeted planets, ships a hundred light-years away and destroyed them all with perfect precision. He could burn planets from two galaxies away and that's what he did. He didn't care whether or not there were Timelords fighting on those planets, he declared that he had already told all Timelords to return to Gallifrey and that he was no longer responsible and so continued razing his way through the galaxy.

We couldn't stop him. The Dalek's couldn't stop him. Davros was killed in battle by the Nightmare Child the first time he lived; he took the most powerful ship they had and fought him head on but the Nightmare Child destroyed him.

In the end the High Council decided enough was enough. With the appearance of the Nightmare Child and the Sword of Gallifrey it was too dangerous for us to continue fighting – the entire universe was at stake. So we went back, before the Sword of Gallifrey existed, before the Nightmare Child appeared, before the Dalek's even sent out their first ship to battle and Timelocked the war, we made sure that nothing would ever be able to ever again be influenced by what we did." The Doctor sighed wiping a tear from his eyes. It was difficult to think about everything had happened in the past.

"After it was locked the Timewar descended into its worst points, both sides pulling out both the stops to try and get the final blow and then, just like before the Nightmare Child appeared," the Doctor sighed "back then things were different," he looked down at his Tardis where it sat glowing "the Tardis, it called me so I responded and using that I… I ended the Timewar, in… The Moment," he sighed "or at least I thought I ended it. The planets burnt, they all burnt in the fire, a million Dalek ships went down but now… the Sword of Gallifrey is here and a ship that was pretending to be the Nightmare Child.

The war is still going on; the Vanguard is still hunting the Nightmare Child but somehow it has spilled over, somehow it's not in your universe,"

"That ship in space, it wasn't the Nightmare Child?" Jack said holding up the pictures of the ship they saw

"No, it had TNMC printed on the side but I know it wasn't the correct ship. The Nightmare Child had its name printed in gold – just like Timelords used to do. It was a decoy to lure him away from the real one," the Doctor explained

"So Doctor, how do we stop him?" Jack asked "how do we get him back into the timelock?"

The Doctor laughed

"Jack, Captain Jack, you need to understand my Tardis is the greatest ship in all of time and space but against the Sword of Gallifrey – a real Gallifrey ship – my Tardis is just a ship. He could destroy me from three galaxies away with pin-point accuracy," the Doctor explained "I can't stand against something like that,"

"Doctor you ended the Timewar that time, what did you use? What was The Moment?" Jack asked. The Doctor shook his head

"No, we can't do that again. It won't work a second time," the Doctor explained

"Then what is going to happen?" Jack asked "what's next?"

"I guess… he will return to Gallifrey," the Doctor deducted "and when he finds everything gone I guess… he will come after me…"


	11. Chapter 11

The Sword of Gallifrey was a ship like no other, built to carry soldiers in luxury whilst maintaining its edge in combat but as the Vanguard sat in his Captain's seat surrounded by a horseshoe shaped console with several large screens he felt completely alone. His seat was at the top of a cavernous room of carved wooden flooring that peaked at his seat and was on an incline right the way down to the great crystal windows that gave him a panoramic view of the world. There were two other consoles set lower down than his but their leather seats had never been sat in, their screens had never powered up. The Vanguards seat on the other hand – a large winged seat of red leather with a black enamel backing engraved with the ships name and a crest of two crossed swords – was well worn by centuries of use; centuries he did not remember but as his hands flashed across the three glass screens before him it was clear that he was well versed in the way the ship operated. It was second nature, in fact the Vanguard found that he was doing everything in a well practised manner; checking the engines, checking the Time Vortex containment field, checking the energy consumption for the decks that had never been used, the kitchens that were fully stocked and the hundreds of other rooms that had never had a person step foot in. Running his fingers through his white hair, his head tilted to the side as it rested on his hand, his elbow on the arm of the seat the Vanguard got the sensation that this was not new to him as his other hand flashed across the screen using the ships scanners to scan the planets as they hurtled by at such a speed that no other ship in the universe would so much as have a whisper on their scanners.

If they did; so what? His ship was moving too fast to be targeted and which species in its right mind would attack a ship that they could barely get a lock on to scan?

Checking the power output of the engines, the Vanguard smiled when he saw that they were operating on barely 30% power. The guns were fully charged, the food pantry was well refrigerated and with the engines barely out of idle and powering through the great darkness the ship wasn't even using half power; he had so much at his fingertips. They were powering through galaxies at a rate that would have seemed ridiculous even to the most open-minded of physicists. After several minutes the Vanguard had already powered out of the Milky Way and was heading further than the deepest satellites could track.

Skimming his fingers over one of the screens he pulled up the ships log which had only a single entry despite the fact the ship was centuries old. It was a big data entry according to the documents properties and would take him some time to get through but it was addressed to him - the creators name was also the same. It didn't surprise him unduly; everything on the ship was keyed to his biological information so it made sense that he was the only one who could access the systems. Tapping on the file he decided there was no harm in watching a few minutes of it – after all the ship was instructed to take him to the nearest desolate planet of importance. There were also other filters included in his search which included CyberFleets and anything related to the Dalek's but there was nothing in his immediate area.

The file opened and the face that filled the screen was his own – as fresh as ever with his flawless skin and straight-cut hair but unlike his current self the person on the screen was dressed in a black uniform with red epaulettes. "If you are watching this," he inevitably started "then things have gone as I expected and you are free from the timelock. This is good news. Regrettably you will have lost your memory but there is good news. You are me, I am you, this means there will be residual memories. This is clear from the fact you have accessed the secure system – you have found the Sword of Gallifrey – this is by no means a feat you could have achieved with no prior knowledge. This means with the right trigger full recall will be yours in due time. Before we start I must tell you some very important information regarding your mission…"

The Vanguard tapped on one of his other screens to instruct the kitchen in the Sword to fabricate a pot of tea – if he knew himself as well as he thought he did this was going to be a _long_ video.


	12. Chapter 12

Back on Earth the Doctor was having a dilemma of his own – he had used the subspace relay on his Tardis to track the same signal that the Vanguard had used to find his ship in the first place. The Doctor knew that the Sword of Gallifrey was a Tardis at heart and so could travel in time but the readings he was getting told him that it was being used as a ship rather than to timetravel and so it wouldn't be too difficult for him to track it. After several short taps on the Tardis' keyboard and more than its fair share of sparks and clunking noises the Tardis located the Sword many light years away steaming through the galaxy it was currently in heading for the next.

"What's the plan Doctor?" Amy asked standing at his shoulder "do we find this handsome man?"

"I must – I need to know how he got out. He suggested many got out and I need to know why. I also need to know why that ship was pretending to be the Nightmare Child and where the Vanguard is going to track it next. I have many questions." He smiled.

"So when do we head off for the new ship?" she asked

"_We_ don't, I know I say this a lot but this time it really is too dangerous. This is a Timelord at his peak – he has a lively trigger finger and seems to be a fan of shooting holes in people. I can't put you in that kind of danger."

"It's ok, we volunteered and Jack is adamant that he joins us. He's the only one getting shot." Amy said happily as she bounded towards the door.

"I don't even know if I can dock with the Sword of Gallifrey!" the Doctor told her

"You can – you know you can," Jack stated as he entered the Tardis "First rule – the Doctor lies."

"Yes but here isn't the time for lying – this is a Timelord who is happy to kill people. I need to get him to trust me."

"He can trust us all," Amy said "come on Doctor, we aren't just going to leave you by yourself to face someone like this; we have your back."

"You don't understand!" the Doctor pleaded but Amy raised her hand for silence.

"I'm sorry Doctor but we are all going. That is it." She told him sternly.

The Doctor sighed – there was no arguing with her it would seem.

"Best get aboard then – next stop the Sword of Gallifrey!" he tapped several keys while Jack checked with his wrist-band.

"I'm instructing Torchwood to keep an open channel with us – if anything happens while we are away they will be able to get a message through to me." He explained before closing the leather cover.

Without further ado the Doctor locked onto the Sword's signal and with a few more carefree levers being thrown the course was plotted and the Tardis vanished from its place in Cardiff.

With the usual sound of the universe rushing past them accompanied by the constant shaking and crashing of energy beyond the many walls of the Tardis the Doctor tried his best to stay in place and watch the course of the Tardis as it hurtled after the sword.

"He has stopped in the orbit of a planet! But scanners indicate he hasn't seen us!" the Doctor beamed as they bared down on the Sword of Gallifrey where it had stopped, slowly orbiting one of the planets in a system far away. As the Tardis emerged in space opposite the Sword of Gallifrey the Doctor cursed as the control panel threw out a torrent of sparks and smoke before the entire ship went dark.

Sitting in his control room, leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed – in a state of energy preservation while he waited – the Vanguard was awoken by a slowly pulsing buzzer on his screen, his eyes remained closed as he raised his hand and tapped on the screen to bring up the diagnostic alarm that was buzzing away. It told him that something was approaching very fast, straight towards his current position.

"Shut it down," he ordered casually as he reached out for his pot of tea. A millionth of a second before the Tardis materialised the Sword of Gallifrey chose its position in the endless black and fired. The Tardis was barely solid when the energy beam ploughed into it spinning it through the sky like a stone hurled by a giant. The Vanguard watched passively as the Tardis continued to spin through the darkness for several moments before managing to stop itself.

Inside the Tardis the world was chaos, the four heroes lay in various places having been spun like a hamster in a wheel. While the Doctor remained balanced on one leg, the other stretched far behind him pushing against the bar to keep himself steady, Jack was picking himself up from the floor while Amy had managed to end up on one of the upper walkways. Slowly the lights flickered back into life.

"Rory? Rory!" Amy shouted as she ran down from the catwalk to find no sign of her husband. Grumbling and covered in flour, Rory appeared from one of the exits deeper into the Tardis.

"Doctor – since when has that door been a link to the bakery?" he asked wiping the powder from his eyes.

"I thought it would make breakfast easier," the Doctor explained "so I moved it, save walking all the way through."

"Since when have we _had_ a bakery?" was Rory's next question

"Just a few months – I made it for when Amy was or wasn't pregnant. Everyone loves the smell of fresh bread."

"But it's never been used."

The Doctor tapped several keys on the console

"Done. Moved. That door will take you to the spiral staircase through the levels. In future god help you find the bakery when you want bread and it's no use crying to me!" the Doctor replied.

"Never mind that – what was that?" Jack asked pulling the console towards him but immediately had it pulled back by the Doctor.

"Clamping beam. It should have incapacitated us completely but since we upgraded out shields against the Dalek's it's still holding strong." The Doctor checked the readout – the Sword of Gallifrey was making no manoeuvres to attack them and it hadn't fired a second shot.

"Now what?" Rory asked "are we just going to float here?"

"No Rory we aren't going to just float here – but I don't know what we _are_ going to do as I can't put my Tardis on the Sword of Gallifrey. Two different Time Vortex in the same place will rip the universe to little pieces. You can't have two unlimited-universes in one box. It's just crazy even for me."

"So what we just…" Amy started but stopped as the Doctor vanished in a flash of white light.


End file.
